LOS ANGELES — The NCAA has instituted three new rules, but one will surely get the most attention. I’ll list the ones in order of what should be the most controversial:

1. Excessive celebration rule. If you think this rule was controversial before, wait’ll you see the changes this year. Before when a player did anything deemed as “excessive celebration” or “taunting” on a touchdown play, the scoring team was assessed a 15-yard penalty on the ensuing kickoff.

This year, if the penalty occurs BEFORE they cross the goal line, the touchdown is taken away and a 15-yard penalty is assessed from the point of celebration. That could range from pointing to the opposing crowd, holding the ball toward an opponent or diving in the end zone when unnecessary.

How they’ll determine “unnecessary” if a defender is “nearby” will be anyone’s guess.

2. Blocking below the waist. The NCAA is trying to eliminate blind-side hits on knees and ankiles. To help in that worthy cause, they have established what they call “adjacent” and “non-adjacent” sidelines. If a player is lined up on the left side of the field, the left sideline is his adjacent sideline.

A player can only block below the waist if he is within the tackle box along the line of scrimmage, if he’s headed straight upfield or if he is on his adjacent sideline. In other words, you can block below the waist if the defender has a good chance to see you.

3. Ten-Second Subtraction rule. A year ago, an offensive team who needed to stop the clock for a last play could snap the ball early and get assessed a false start. The clock would then stop and they could line up for the next play, five yards back.

This year, if that happens, 10 seconds will be taken off the clock. If nine seconds remain and the offense is six points down and commit a false start at the opponent’s 2, the game will end at the 2-yard-line. The only time the 10 seconds won’t be taken off is if the offensive team has a timeout remaining.

The same applies for defense. If it’s trying to get the ball back, it can not step over the line of scrimmage and just touch an offensive lineman or commit any other penalty to stop the clock. If the defense has no timeout, 10 seconds will be taken off the clock.

The Pac-12, in preparation for the expanded league with more national focus, hired 18 new officials from the Big 12, Mountain West, WAC and some small colleges in the Northwest. Many officials were not invited back.